Mackenzie

The thought of you is a throat full of glass,a deep stinging pain which always seems to last,
the world lost someone special, she was truly one in a million,
a girl with a mind and a heart which was truly brilliant,
a gentle soul with a loving smile, her heart pure gold, kindness her style, her laughter sweet music, her eyes twinkling stars,
Though she's physically gone she's truly not far,
she lives on in memories through actions and words,
through past, present, and future through all that occurred,
through pictures and conversations from morning through night,
she continues to bring smiles, love, laughter, and light,
so though it may hurt that she's physically gone,
may we find comfort in knowing her personality lives on

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”